Search engines such as Google provide an excellent way of collating vast amounts of data that exist on networks (such as the World Wide Web), and provides search results ranked in order of potential relevance in dependence upon search criteria set by the user. A drawback of this type of searching, however, is that information that is secure or has restricted access is either not identified in the search results, or is inadvertently made publically available when access restrictions are accidentally bypassed.
A search engine is a computer program that assists in finding data stored on a computer or network of computers, for example a public server on the World Wide Web, or on one's own computer. For example, a search engine may allow one to search for content meeting specific criteria, such as content containing a given word or phrase, and retrieving a list of files that match those criteria. Search engines typically use a previously generated, and regularly updated, index to search for data, in accordance with the search criteria entered.